1970 RUC booby-trap bombing

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Crossmaglen booby-trap bombing
Part of the Troubles
Relief Map of Northern Ireland.png
Red pog.svg
Location Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland
Coordinates 54°7′55.72″N6°34′57.10″W / 54.1321444°N 6.5825278°W / 54.1321444; -6.5825278 Coordinates: 54°7′55.72″N6°34′57.10″W / 54.1321444°N 6.5825278°W / 54.1321444; -6.5825278
Date11 August 1970
12:30 a.m.
Target Royal Ulster Constabulary personnel
Attack type
 booby-trap bomb
Deaths2 RUC officers
Perpetrator Provisional IRA (South Armagh Brigade)

On 11 August 1970, two Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were killed by a booby-trap bomb planted under a car by the Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) near Crossmaglen, in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. [1] [2] [3] They were the first RUC officers to be killed by republicans during the Troubles and the first security forces to be killed in South Armagh, an IRA stronghold for much of the conflict.

Royal Ulster Constabulary former police force in Northern Ireland

The Royal Ulster Constabulary was the police force in Northern Ireland from 1922 to 2001. Following the awarding of the George Cross in 2000, its formal title became the Royal Ulster Constabulary, GC. It was founded on 1 June 1922 as a successor to the Royal Irish Constabulary (RIC). At its peak the force had around 8,500 officers with a further 4,500 who were members of the RUC Reserve. During the Troubles, 319 members of the RUC were killed and almost 9,000 injured in paramilitary assassinations or attacks, mostly by the Provisional IRA, which made the RUC, by 1983, the most dangerous police force in the world in which to serve. In the same period, the RUC killed 55 people, 28 of whom were civilians.

Provisional Irish Republican Army Disbanded Irish Republican paramilitary group

The Irish Republican Army, also known as the Provisional Irish Republican Army, was an Irish republican paramilitary organisation that sought to end British rule in Northern Ireland, facilitate the reunification of Ireland and bring about an independent republic encompassing all of Ireland. It was the biggest and most active republican paramilitary group during the Troubles. It saw itself as the successor to the original IRA and called itself simply the Irish Republican Army (IRA), or Óglaigh na hÉireann in Irish, and was broadly referred to as such by others. The IRA was designated an unlawful terrorist organisation in the United Kingdom and an unlawful organisation in the Republic of Ireland.

Crossmaglen village in County Armagh, Northern Ireland

Crossmaglen is a village and townland in County Armagh, Northern Ireland. It had a population of 1,592 in the 2011 Census and is the largest village in South Armagh. The village centre is the site of a large Police Service of Northern Ireland base and formerly of an observation tower.

Contents

Background

The conflict known as Troubles had started a year earlier in August 1969 with the Battle of the Bogside followed by the August 1969 riots. The first RUC officer to be killed in the conflict was Victor Arbuckle (29). He was shot dead by members of the Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) on 12 October 1969, during street violence in the Shankill area of Belfast. The loyalists "had taken to the streets in protest at the Hunt Report, which recommended the disbandment of the B Specials and disarming of the RUC". [4]

Battle of the Bogside

"Derry riots" redirects here. For other events, see 1996 Derry riots or 2018 Derry riots.

1969 Northern Ireland riots Series of political and sectarian riots, August 1969

During 12–17 August 1969, political and sectarian rioting took place in Northern Ireland. There had been sporadic violence throughout the year arising out of the civil rights campaign, which demanded an end to discrimination against Irish Catholics. Civil rights marches were repeatedly attacked by both Ulster Protestant loyalists and by the Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC), a unionist and largely Protestant sectarian police force.

Ulster Volunteer Force Ulster loyalist paramilitary group in Northern Ireland

The Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) is an Ulster loyalist paramilitary group. It emerged in 1966. Its first leader was Gusty Spence, a former British soldier. The group undertook an armed campaign of almost thirty years during the Troubles. It declared a ceasefire in 1994 and officially ended its campaign in 2007, although some of its members have continued to engage in violence and criminal activities. The group is classified as a terrorist organisation by the United Kingdom, Republic of Ireland, and United States.

The bombing

On the evening of 11 August, two RUC officers based in Crossmaglen—Samuel Donaldson (23) and Robert Millar (26) [5] —went to investigate a red Ford Cortina abandoned on the Lissaraw Road near the village. Unknown to the officers, the car contained a booby-trap bomb, made up of 20 lb (9.1 kg) of gelignite. It exploded when one of the officers attempted to open one of the car doors, badly wounding them and blowing them over a hedge. The blast was heard from Crossmaglen RUC station. The officers died of their wounds the next day. They were the first members of the security forces to be killed by republicans during the conflict. [6] [7] The car had been stolen outside the Ardmore Hotel in Newry on 7 August. The action was planned and executed by an active service unit made up of IRA members from Navan, County Meath and Inniskeen, County Monaghan, both in the Republic of Ireland. The group was led by high-profile republican Seán Mac Stíofáin. [8]

Ford Cortina car model

The Ford Cortina is a car that was built by Ford of Britain in various guises from 1962 to 1982, and was the United Kingdom's best-selling car of the 1970s.

Gelignite

Gelignite, also known as blasting gelatin or simply jelly, is an explosive material consisting of collodion-cotton dissolved in either nitroglycerine or nitroglycol and mixed with wood pulp and saltpetre.

Active service unit

An Active Service Unit (ASU) was a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) cell of five to eight members, tasked with carrying out armed attacks. In 2002 the IRA had about 1,000 active members of which about 300 were in active service units.

Aftermath

On the same day as the bombing thousands of people including Gerry Adams attended the funeral of veteran IRA man Jimmy Steele who fought in the Irish Civil War for the Republican side, and was buried in Milltown cemetery [9]

Gerry Adams Irish Republican politician, leader of Sinn Fein 1983–2018

Gerard Adams is an Irish republican politician who was the Leader of the Sinn Féin political party between 13 November 1983 and 10 February 2018, and has been a Teachta Dála (TD) for Louth since the 2011 general election. From 1983 to 1992 and from 1997 to 2011, he was an abstentionist Member of Parliament (MP) of the British Parliament for the Belfast West constituency.

Jimmy Steele was an Irish republican and Irish Republican Army (IRA) member born in Belfast, Ireland.

Irish Civil War June 1922 - May 1923 war following the formation of the Irish Free State, between Irish Nationalists and Republicans

The Irish Civil War was a conflict that followed the Irish War of Independence and accompanied the establishment of the Irish Free State, an entity independent from the United Kingdom but within the British Empire.

The next killing of a member of the British security forces was in February 1971, when the IRA shot dead Gunner Robert Curtis in Belfast. Curtis was the first British soldier to be killed in the Troubles. [10]

Crossmaglen would become an Irish Republican stronghold and the Provisional IRA carried at many attacks on the British security forces here during the course of the conflict.

The Troubles in Crossmaglen recounts incidents during, and the effects of, the Troubles in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

See Also


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1985 Newry mortar attack

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1988 IRA attacks in the Netherlands

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1979 Bessbrook bombing

The Bessbrook bombing took place on the 17 April 1979 when four Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC) officers were killed when the Provisional IRA exploded an estimated 1,000 pound roadside van bomb at Bessbrook, County Armagh, believed to be the largest bomb used by the IRA up to that point.

On 5 April 1975 Irish Republican paramilitary members killed a UDA volunteer and four Protestant civilians in a gun and bomb attack at the Mountainview Tavern on the Shankill Road - the heart of Loyalist Belfast. The attack was claimed by the Republican Action Force believed to be a covername used by Provisional IRA (IRA) volunteers. Earlier in the day, two Catholic civilians were killed in a bomb attack in a Belfast pub carried out by the Protestant Action Force a name used by the Ulster Volunteer Force to claim some attacks. An elderly Catholic man was shot later the same night by Loyalists bringing the death toll to eight for the day.

Attack on RUC Birches barracks

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Killeen Landmine attack

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1978 Lisnamuck shoot-out

On the night of 17 March 1978 at around 21:20 a Provisional Irish Republican Army (IRA) unit and a Special Air Service (SAS) unit became engaged in a shoot out in a field in Lisnamuck, near Maghera, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. The leader of the IRA unit was Francis Hughes who was from Bellaghy, County Londonderry, who at that time was the "most wanted man" in Northern Ireland when a year earlier on 18 April 1977, Hughes, Dominic McGlinchey and Ian Milne were travelling in a car near the town of Moneymore when an RUC patrol car carrying four officers signalled them to stop. The IRA members attempted to escape by performing a u-turn, but lost control of the car which ended up in a ditch. They abandoned the car and opened fire on the RUC patrol car, killing two officers and wounding another, before running off through fields. A second RUC patrol came under fire while attempting to prevent the men fleeing, and despite a search operation by the RUC and British Army (BA) the IRA members escaped.

Strand Bar bombing

The Strand Bar Bombing was a gun and bomb attack carried out by the Loyalist Paramilitary organisation Ulster Volunteer Force (UVF) in Belfast in 1975. The blast destroyed most of the building and killed six civilians and injured about 50 more.

1978 Crossmaglen ambush

On 21 December 1978, three British soldiers were shot dead when the Provisional IRA's South Armagh Brigade ambushed an eight-man British Army foot patrol in Crossmaglen, County Armagh, Northern Ireland.

The following is a timeline of Northern Irish conflict actions which took place in the Republic of Ireland between 1969 and 1998. It includes Ulster Volunteer Force bombings such as the Dublin and Monaghan bombings in May 1974, and other Loyalist bombings, the last of which was in 1997. These attacks killed dozens of people. Actions by Irish Republicans include deadly bombings, prison escapes, kidnappings, and gun battles between the Gardaí (police) and the Irish Defence Forces against Republican gunmen from the Irish National Liberation Army, the Provisional Irish Republican Army, and a socialist-revolutionary group, Saor Éire. These attacks killed a number of civilians, police, soldiers, and Republican terrorists.

References

  1. ↑ "Army and police casualties". 19 December 1975. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  2. ↑ "Gravestones book tribute to 302 RUC members". Belfat Telegraph. 10 May 2011. Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  3. ↑ "Police Roll of Honour Trust" . Retrieved 3 July 2017.
  4. ↑ McKittrick, David. Lost Lives: The Stories of the Men, Women and Children who Died as a Result of the Northern Ireland Troubles, Random House, 2001. p. 42
  5. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  6. ↑ McKittrick, pp.56-57.
  7. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
  8. ↑ Harnden, Toby (1999). Bandit Country. The IRA & South Armagh. Coronet Books. p. 56. ISBN   0340717378.
  9. ↑ Peter Taylor - Behind The Mask: The IRA & Sinn Fein p.106
  10. ↑ Sutton, Malcolm. "CAIN: Sutton Index of Deaths". cain.ulst.ac.uk. Retrieved 17 May 2017.
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